The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-01-26
BLUES GULLY, n. G..

lLDlIoR MUM Enocl Il
The sub-department of the Expert
ment Farm greatly interests us in
these parts and many of us made up
our minds that the next time we
went up to sell a load Of rabbits and
hens too old to lay, we would run
and see it. At this time old hens
are selling we'll in Raleigh. The no.
tells and boarding houses are wild to
get them, now that the Legislature is
in session, and pay thirty-tive cents
for them by the load. The reason
for this is that a good old hen will
last two days and be good for hash
the next morning. One day they
make soup out Of her and cut her to
pieces and try to eat her. Then the
pieces are gathered up and stewed
for next days dinner and all that is
left is hashed for next mornings
breakfast. Old hens sell we'll in
Raleigh, better than rabbits, just at
this time, though rabbit is a stan
dard dish with some folks up there.
But | set out to say that Squire
Virgins went up to Raleigh to the
fair and while there he stepped over
to the Experiment Farm. If what
he tells is true the thing has the
right name. He says that he saw
two or three fine houses up on a hill
and the foundation for a barn and
that from what he saw it will be
many years before they need a barn
larger than his wife's old hair trunk
her mother gave her fifty years ago
when he and she got married. He
says he saw about an acre of tobacco
that was little higher than his hand
and so thin that it was blowing
away, and he gives it as his opinion
that if there is a farmer in North
Carolina who cannot make a better
crop of tobacco on any piece OF land
on his farm he had better sell out at
once and GO into an insurance agency
OF sell sewing machines. According
to his report they have over there
two good mules and a fine horse and
unlimited manure and guano, and
that the horse spends his time AIRY
ing the officers and delivering the
orders, while the two mules are en-
ployed in haulingthe things ordered
of the commission merchants. They
could plough the entire crop on the
farm in ali hour. But he saw the
farmer in charge, Il German from
New York, who had never IN his life
before coming down here seen a
stalk of cotton or tobacco and who
did not know a tobacco seed from Il
cotton seed. This farmer showed
Squire Virgins his crop Of cotton
and tobacco in bottles. He had a
long box with one side on hinges
and in this box he had a row of bot
ties filled with water and liquid ma
nure and in each bottle was a tusk
of cotton or tobacco. His object, he
said, was to see how many "mille-
grams" a root of each would grow
in a day. This was wonderful, as
the roots of the poor sickly plants
were coiled up in the water and look
ed mighty white and clean. Then
he showed him a little black thing
sticking out Of the ground and point
ing South. This he said was an in
strument by which he could tell
every day how hard the suns rays
hit the earth. OF all things Squire
Virgins saw, this black instrument
seems to have impressed him most
and he now thinks that the reason
his cotton and tobacco turn yellow
in hot weather is not 50 much for
want of rain as it is from being
punctured and cut into millions of
fine holes by the rays of the sun.
He says that he saw one of the as
sistants with two or three other men
helping him, engaged in weighing a
stalk of cotton to see how many
millionths grains it had gained in
twenty four hours. This was a big
job and required much learning, la
Dor and attention. They pulled off
every leaf and weighed it separately
then cut everything root and branch
and then the stalk. Squire Wig
gins says they are learned men and
talked about properties and ele-
ments he never heard of but that he
did not see what use all this was to
the farmers of. North Carolina nor
how they were to be profted by it. He
gives it as his opinion that the Elk
pertinent Farm should be a place
where every farmer could go and
learn exactly how to plant a crop
of anything he wishes to raise and
the best way to work it, etc. In
his opinion there is not q man cnn